The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-16
VAGARIES OF LITERARY WO-
MEN.

MEN.
The Strange Beliefs Some OF Them
Have SuperstiuiOusa As a Rule.
1T is said that actresses have super
stitions and vagaries in a more marked
degree than other women" said an old
litrerateur to a Nail and Express writer.
.'But that is fallacy which should he
exploded; it does them a great injustice.
Literary women have more oddities than
any other class. New York is the home
of majority Of women who desire to
live by their pen, and In no other city
can they be studied to better advantage.
Many of them believe in theOsoyhy,
transmigration of the soul into animals.
pantheism, MISUNDERSTANDING, atheism,
evolution and many other isms that
place them out of the pale CT Christian
ity. But they are not orthodox even i'm
what they profess to believe, and have
many queer ideas and notions in con-
nection with their religious faith Now
l know young woman who at times is
a charming writer, who imagines her
soul several hundred years ago inhabited
the body of a great general. Her theory
is that the soul never goes to another
world and becomes spirit, but merely
leaves the casket or body of one person
at death to find home in another just
born. BY this means the immortality of
the soul is explained. Her idea is that
at times, by some freak, the soul or life
principle in a dog gets into the body of
a man end produces a monster. No man,
she argues, can ever become immortal
until his soul has been refined and puri-
fed nv inhabitinO for SaycraI canturioo
the body of a woman. The inconsistency
OF such belief is apparent, but no
amount of reasoning can convince her
that nature works on a more original
soul plan than the one she believes in.
This woman is practical outside of this
crochet.
"People can be great and have peculiar
beliefs. Gen. StOnewall jackson thought
that eating black pepper gave him rheu-
matism in his left leg. Another literary
woman, who, perhaps, is destined to
make a stir within a few years, is an out
and out atheist. Yet she goes to church
and believes that number thirteen is a
bad number that to turn back when
once started on journey is not good
luck, and that when the left ear burns
a friend IL talking about her. She can
begin with Aristotle and Plato. and by
ingenious reasoning show that these
worthy ancient philosophers were simply
beautiful takers and did not believe what
they preached. She believes Empedocles
the wisest man of the ancients, because
he jumped into the crater of Vesuvius to
make his followers think he had ascend
ed to heaven. Nine. BIavatsky con-
verted several to her belief in theOsOphy,
and they still relate wonderful things of
that disciple of Gautama.
lone woman who can turn out three
or four bright articles a day, firmly be-
lieves that she has already been in the
nirvana state for over a thousand years,
and hus just come upon earth for a brief
period before going back again. She
asserts that Edwin Arnold, the author Of
the Light of Asia, is a seer, and held
spiritual communication with Gautama
in order to get inspiration to write the
:" Great Remuneration" This woman has
children and they attend Sunday school
regularly. The father. however, is or
thodox, and thinks Gautama and his
"NIrvana" humbug.
MANY female writers, especially those
who drop into poetry, imagine they re-
ceive spiritual inspiration from authors
who have been long dead. / could men
ton one whose name is frequently in
papers, who firmly believes she receives
material aid from the other world.
at all superstitious about signs or Omens.
She has been sadly duped by several no.
torious mediums whom the press has ex-
posed, Vet she has faith in the ability Of
certain persons to trot ghost out at any
moment when the lights are turned
down and the audience away from the
stage. l attribute many of the eccen-
tricities in female writers to the fact that
they try to keep up their physical ami
nation by the free use of stimulants
A gentleman had a daughter who was
writing novel. She grew paler and
thinner every day, but seemed to have a
wonderful amount of animation at
times, especially about the time abe sat
down to write. He was at loss to ac-
count for it, as she took little exercise
One day his wife confessed to him that
his daughter was using stimulants freely
to assist inspiration. She SAID the
daughter had read that Ouida, who was
almost skeleton, used stimulants to
get up steam to finish a novel. and why
not emulate that successful writer? The
stimulant rock l advise all women
writers to avoid. Have your isms, your
superstitions. your omens, and your va
carries, but shun liquid inspiration
The names of these women? oh, no,
would betray confidence if l divulge,i
their names"